Hi Sam!

I wanted to reply to your post because I have had similar questions about what the perfect ratio for me is as well. The first thing I did was just google the question about what the healthy ratio should be. If you are looking in the "primal diet" or "atkins" areas, you will see that they suggest high protein, low carb, moderate fat. If you you look in the vegetarian, whole foods, or organic areas, they will suggest high carbs, low protein, low fat. Most sites that I looked at show the average person should stay in these ranges for optimal heart health:

Carbs: 45-60%
Protein: 20-25%
Fats: 15-20%

Here's a link to a cardiologist's food blog: http://www.thecookingcardiologist.com/cardiologist-blog/balance-carbs-protein-and-fat-better-health

He recommends a 50/25/25 ratio for Carbs/Protein/Fats.

What I have seen is that people can be healthy or unhealthy regardless of the percentages that they set on MFP's food goals. What seems to be most important in terms of overall health isn't just how much of a certain macro you're eating, but more important is what KIND. If you're eating a lot of highly refined carbs like white flour, white sugar, etc, then your carbs are not as healthy as if you were eating lots of non-starchy vegetables and leafy greens.

I think there are several questions that you can ask yourself as kind of a self assessment, and then find the ratio of macros that works best for you.

1) Your weight loss goal is very minimal, have you set your goal at "lose half a pound per week" or "maintain current weight'? If you still have your goal set at "lose 2 pounds per week" you are cutting out a lot of calories that you really don't need to.

2) Are you using a HRM for your Chalean workouts? I used to keep my HRM running for about 30 minutes after I finished a Chalean workout because I was still burning at a really high rate until my heart rate went back to normal. If you are only logging those workouts as weight training, you may be missing a lot of burned calories.

3) Do you eat back your exercise calories? There's tons of debate on this site about whether or not someone should eat back exercise calories. I am in the "Eat them if you Earned them" camp. You can't expect your body to push so hard and exert so much energy for those workouts and then not replenish it. The key is to make sure that you eat back food that is going to contribute to your health rather than detract from it.

Bottom line, the numbers are important, but they are only the framework for the big picture. If you're eating something that you know is junk, then it doesn't matter if you eating the right ratio of junk. As far as hunger goes, there are a lot of tips for avoiding overeating and binges. You can start with a glass of water to make sure you're not confusing thirst with hunger. You can use Philosohoe's 20 Minute Rule: if you're craving something, wait 20 minutes before you decide to eat it; if you get distracted, then you didn't really want it, but if you still do, eat a moderate amount.

You look great. You going to love the Lean Phase when you get there. Keep up the awesome work!:flowerforyou:

no problem. There's a ton to read on here which is where I have figured out what works for me. Give it time before trying something new though. At least 4 weeks...sometimes it takes a while to kick in.

Ladies- The EM2WL (Eat More 2 Weigh Less) group here on MFP has a ton of great info on making sure you're eating enough to properly fuel your body especially with strength programs such as chalean extreme. You should definitely never go under BMR as its dangerously low espeically with muscles trying to repair themselves. TDEE -15% is often suggested as a good "cut" number to slowly and healthily lose body fat.